Thousands join Marawi City 76th anniversary feast

MARAWI CITY --- Thousands of ethnic Maranaws on Wednesday marched through the streets to celebrate the city’s 76th founding anniversary, an event never witnessed in about a decade due to serious security woes.
This city, originally known as Dansalan municipality, was the flashpoint for the Moro aspiration for self-governance, inspired by the crafting here in 1935 by Maranaw sultans of the Dansalan Declaration” urging President Franklin Delano Roosevelt of the United States of America to grant independence to the then American-controlled Mindanao Moro province.In official communiqués Thursday, the mayor here, lawyer Majul Gandamra, and Lanao del Sur Gov. Soraya Alonto-Adiong separately expressed gratitude to local residents for participating in Wednesday’s Marawi City founding anniversary celebration.The activity was partly meant to highlight the improving security situation in Marawi City and neighboring towns in Lanao del Sur.Marawi City was rocked by sensational incidents in recent years, among them kidnapping and murder incidents, rape of women involving drug addicts and violence among heavily-armed Maranaw families locked in deadly clan wars.The city, which has 96 barangays, is the seat of the provincial government of Lanao del Sur, covering 39 towns in two congressional districts.The largest government school in the country’s south, the Mindanao State University, is located at a hilly district in the city, overlooking the scenic Lake Lanao, touted as Asia’s largest.The downstream flow of Lake Lanao that drains in rivers in Iligan City and in the coasts of Lanao del Norte, propels several hydroelectric plants supplying about three-fourths of Mindanao's daily power needs.A practicing human rights lawyer, Gandamra, elected mayor only last May 9, 2016, said he is thankful to his constituents, the local religious communities and the traditional Maranaw leaders for helping his administration pursue its sanitation, social welfare and anti-narcotics campaign.Organizers of the city’s anniversary festivities told and//www.ndbcnews.com.ph www.ndbcnews.com.ph about 20,000 community elders, barangay officials and representatives from the business, academe and other sectors paraded around on Wednesday to show they are now bouncing back from the nagging peace and order problems that hounded them for years.Local officials said these security constraints dampened the enthusiasm of Maranaw folks to participate in governance.Officials said one reason why thousands joined the day-long anniversary activities was to collectively disprove notions that they are under threat from Islamic militants spreading around.The sources were referring to the fledgling Maute terror group that originated in Butig town in the first district of Lanao del Sur.The group, which surfaced early this year, is claiming allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

Lanao del Sur Vice Gov. Mamintal Adiong, Jr., a senior member of the provincial peace and order council, said authorities are in full in control of the security situation in Marawi City and in all of the 39 towns in the province.The festivities on Wednesday became markedly meaningful with the visit of Lanao del Sur officials, led by the provincial governor, to the city hall, which they never did for so long due to bitter, irreconcilable political differences with former elected Marawi officials.